Does anyone have a good source they wouldn't mind sharing for pre-decimal UK coins? I've looked at various antique places, coin dealers etc, but naturally they charge a premium.

thanks in advance!

Coin dealers have two sets of coins: the ones that are rare/uncirculated/good quality, and they charge a premium for those.
They also have junk/used/worn coins and those are often very cheap, because collectors aren't interested in them.

The dealer I used to go to had a tray in the front of foreign coins I'd look through. He'd often have English Pennies ranging from $0.25 to $1.00. I could never tell what determined the price - one day I'd see a super soft one (barely able to make out the details) for a dollar, the next time there'd be a clean (as far as I cared about) one in the 25 cent bowl.

But they don't always put them out, so it could be worth asking. Good luck.

Thank you for your reply.

We have an antiques centre down the road, but, they seem quite overpriced on most things. I think I'll look for dealers further afield and make some enquiries.

I must also get my USA buddies to send me some US coins as the UK magic dealers do make a lot of markup on them (20 half dollars for 20 quid)

It looks like you're UK-based in which case I recommend this monthly coin fair in Birmingham with a huge range of stuff on sale:

http://www.coinfairs.co.uk/midland-coin-fair.aspx